This Ain’t No Disco. This Ain’t No Costco. This is BLK TAG using their UPPERCASE VOICE and lowercase, inside voice.

BLK TAG are a new collaborative effort between JS Adams (BLK w/BEAR) and Chris Videll (Tag Cloud) created for Long Division with Remainders’ Collision/Detection project. Their VERSION 5 download EP was released October 2012 on Front & Follow (UK) and will be included in a 2013 CD collection of all versions. BLK TAG also contributed to Music for Restrooms and the STYLUS!BLACK!FACTORY performance at the Sonic Circuits 2012 festival. The pair finds influence in disparate pairings of dead media recording blanks, Peter Hammill, Wir(e), Throbbing Gristle, Coil, 10cc, Henry Rollins, György Ligeti and the accordion music of Aimable Pluchard. BLACK FRIDAY : TAG SALE is their spontaneous response to Black Friday consumerism. Additional sounds on MUSIC FOR AIRPORT RESTROOMS, VERSION 5 and BLACK FRIDAY : TAG SALE are from Doug Poplin (BLK w/BEAR, Bach Sinfonia), Mark Ophidian (Animals With Machinery; Crippled Black Phoenix) and PD Sexton (BLK w/BEAR). Mastering by Mark Beazley, Trace Recordings (UK). Special thanks to Justin Watson (Front & Follow) for first suggesting the collaboration.

Tag Cloud started in 2009 as a series of best-forgotten experiments with field recordings and has come to include analog electronics, effects cheap keyboards, metal percussion, and shruti box. Best described at this point as "electroacoustic sound sculpture and carpets of drone." Tag Cloud was among contributors to the Long Division with Remainders '14 versions of the same EP' project site and also available in a box-set collection with all fourteen versions plus an additional digital-download outtake 'Remainders.' He has collaborations with Blue Sausage Infant, Daniel Barbiero and Gary Rouzer, the electronic duo Cable Rot with Doug Stailey, as well as the improv group Safe Fast & Effective. His debut release 'Named Entities' (Zeromoon) was released in 2012.

Originally a solo effort of Adams and now a full-band effort with Doug Poplin, Renée Shaw and PD Sexton, BLK w/BEAR have garnered glowing reviews and international airplay for the thought-provoking and moving 'Wish for a World Without Hurt' collaboration with London's Rothko and the limited edition 'fahrenheit_drafts' 12-inch single (Trace Recordings). Their audio has accompanied film/video projects in NYC and London and selections from 'Wish for a World' were used in the Discovery Channel's poignant 'The Flight that Fought Back' program. The four-track 'Version 3' extended play is available for download at the Long Division with Remainders '14 versions of the same EP' project site and also available in a box-set collection with all fourteen versions, plus an additional bonus digital-download outtakes EP including a 21-minute remix of their Version 001. The mini-album ‘Sorry about your (remixes)’ was released on Front & Follow (UK) in 2011; '[E]xpertly done ambient bliss with moments of unrestrained beauty' - Norman Records. Additional material has been released through Ultra-red’s free download site Public Record, Little Red Squirrel Collective (UK), Cohort Recordings and Sonic Circuits’ District of Noise imprint. '...like Basic Channel at their most abstract, and after a severe nervous breakdown' - Wire Magazine. Adams is also founding member and artistic director of STYLUS – an ensemble of local DC avant-garde musicians who perform exclusively on vintage Califone audio-visual record players using locked-groove and prepared vinyl recordings.

chris videll : tag cloud

analog electronics . casio sk-1 . monotron . shruti box . gongs . tibetan bowls . bells . pedals . effects . processing . pitch pipe

js adams : blk w/bear

loops . prepared vinyl . effects . turntables

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doug poplin : blk w/bear : bach sinfonia

cello . effects

pd sexton : blk w/bear

guitar . bass guitar . effects

mark ophidian : animals with machinery : crippled black phoenix

analog electronics . bass guitar . gristlizer clone . voice

mastering

mark beazley : trace recordings : london uk

thankful

justin watson : jeff surak : chester hawkins : underground of happiness : rottenmeats : sounds xp : caliedoscoop : british library sound archives

copyrights

trace music : zeromoon : lesch-nyham sound